1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of dental implants and methods for restoring a tooth.
2. Description of Related Art
Dental implants commonly employed today have many limitations. For example, there are significant potential areas for error, large inventories are required, and often the implants and techniques used are of great inconvenience to both the dentist and the patient with respect to placement and maintenance. Moreover, typical dental implants require the use of a screw to affix the coronal prosthesis to a previously located implant. The use of such screws require many difficult procedures such as removing the healing collar and affixing the coronal prosthesis to the implant, followed by an overall impression of the coronal prosthesis and the adjacent structures. The impression is then removed from the patient's mouth and the coronal prosthesis, with an attached analog which represents the vertical implant, is inserted and seated into the impression so that the dental laboratory may fabricate the restoration for the missing tooth or teeth. The dental laboratory must then send the finished product back to the dentist who again removes the healing collar and reattaches the coronal prosthesis along with the restoration made by the laboratory which is affixed to the implant by the use of a screw. Such screws have been known to fracture when chewing forces are applied rendering the restoration unsuitable. It has been attempted to place shock absorbing material between the screw and the implant so as to try to prevent the screw from fracturing. This does not always work, however, and it is normal practice to replace the shock absorbing material yearly. This is a costly procedure both in time and money to both the dentist and patient and often causes unnecessary discomfort.
The following U.S. Patents describe relevant dental implants which provide for fixed coronal prostheses: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,431,416; 4,446,579; 4,645,453; 4,758,161; 5,030,095 and 5,071,350. However, the foregoing does not permit the coronal portion to be of various shapes and configurations such as can be achieved through the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,421 describes an expansion of a dental implant having some limited capabilities.
The following patents show other dental implants of various configurations that do not address the problems solved by the present invention: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,185,383; 4,304,553; 4,406,623; 4,420,305; 4,439,152; 4,447,209; 4,516,937; 4,661,066; 4,722,688; 4,744,754; 4,744,755; 4,758,160; 4,773,858; 4,792,580; 4,960,381; 5,062,800; and 5,076,788.